The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project, jointly implemented byBurma and India, is expected to be completed by mid-2014, various media reports said on Thursday.
The project is an Indian government initiative to connect Kolkata with Sittwe port in Burma by sea, then to Sittwe and Mizoram via river and road. The aim is to provide India with trade and transport links to its northeastern states, which are otherwise inaccessible overland via India’s rugged mountainous region.
According to the contractor Essar Company, the first of the three-phase project has been 70 percent completed, reported Xinhua. The first phase includes construction of Sittwe Deep Seaport and Paletwa Jetty in Chin state, dredging the Kaladan waterway and the construction of six vessels.
The second phase covers construction of a 109 km-long road to link Paletwa with the Burma-India border region, and the third phase involves construction of a highway between India’s Mizoram state and Chin state.
The completion of a waterway and highway crossing Burma’s Arakan and Chin states would help support better transport and trade between the regional countries, the report said.
Burma and India signed the US$214 million contract in 2008.
[related]
